KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – NASA and Boeing on Friday plan to bring the Starliner spacecraft home from the International Space Station, sans astronauts.
Starliner undocked from the ISS shortly after 6 p.m.
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The capsule was expected to land six hours later at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico just after midnight on Saturday, Sept. 7. Recovery crews will then prepare to Starliner for its return to Boeing’s factory at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Starliner launched on an Atlas V rocket with two astronauts on board back in June. The spacecraft was supposed to dock with the ISS for a test flight mission, and then bring the astronauts back to Earth.
However, NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks with the spacecraft, as well as issues with reaction control thrusters as Starliner approached the space station. Teams have been collecting data and doing tests to see if they could bring the astronauts back safely, but in the end, the teams felt they did not have enough confidence that bringing the astronauts back in Starliner was safe.
The astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, are on the space station and will remain there through February 2025, when they will return to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with other astronauts.
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